With this whole process comes a lot of thoughts, with a lot of thoughts the need for an outlet arises...thus the blog.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

I was spared my worst nightmare tonight...

SO, we have our weekly foster parent class on Wednesday's right? The first couple weeks were my ADHD self's worst nightmare. The classes were very dry but SUPER informative, our instructors kept telling us they would get better and more interactive. I picked up on interactive and discovered this would mean role playing. Which I loathe. I don't understand how it really helps you understand something when you're pretending to be a part of the situation. I had to do it for a training at a job once and I just get so embarrassed by the way certain people really "blossom" in their acting careers. Last week Anna, fab foster mom/teacher, told us that this week would be role playing. Ugh. I was dreading it. Well as it turns out, my worst nightmare class was actually my favorite class so far. It was super informative and took us through an entire scenario from the reason why children were taken from the family all the way to reunification. There was obviously a lot in between most of which would be too hard to explain via text but overall it really just made me more excited for this journey. It showed me even more the desperate need our county has for foster homes and how desperately these children need to be in a home that is excited to have them, and able to offer them a lot of stability in a super chaotic time. It gave me more confidence that WE can really do this! I'm ready for a lot of things both positive and negative to come from this, and I know this will provide huge growth for me personally. I mentioned before how I've been reading this book, "Another Place at the Table"and here is something else I came across that put things into perspective a little more, for me. "I whispered a prayer and a promise, my mantra, my mission: You are safe. I will keep you safe. You will always be safe". That too will be my mission when broken children come into our home. This book has taught me a lot about the way foster care will look for our family. It has taught me a lot about how many situations and scenarios my own parents protected me from, and how much impact that has on me as an adult. How often do we take that for granted? I can answer that question for myself. A lot. When I was little I laid my head down on the same pillow in the same bed every night. I woke up in the same house with the same siblings. When I was scared I crawled into the same bed with the same parents who offered me the same comfort that I was always used to. Those little things add up and are considered very major things to these children in foster care. I promise these children that they will indeed wake up to the same foster mama offering them the same promise that my own mama and dad offered me, a safe home and unconditional love.